Logan Has Its Maiden Public Appearance at the Geneva Auto Show

The 100th edition of the International Auto Show in Geneva opened yesterday, with Romania for the first time represented. The Dacia-Renault plants exhibited two units of its latest model, Logan. The auto show is open to the general public from March 3 to 13, as it is open to the some 6,000 journalists from all over the world accredited to the event.

The Romanian car maker has its exhibition stand right on the central lane in the biggest hall of the PALEXPO exhibition center. This is very close to the stand of its owner, the French care maker Renault. The size of the Dacia-Renault exhibition stand is not very large, but the general manager, Francois Fourmont was content: "It is a great honor for Dacia to take part in the 100th edition of the Auto Show in Geneva. We hope to have a large number of visitors that will get familiar with the Logan model."
Still, since the Dacia-Renault stand is next to those of Daihatsu and Lada, this shows that to West Europeans the Romanian car comes from a world which has little to offer to the car market.

The Romanian car maker will start selling the Logan model on the Western market in May, at a starting price of 7,500 euros. The model was already ordered by 40,000 customers in Romania. The first Western markets to get the low-priced car are France, Germany and Spain. Other companies presented their newest car models too.
Audi showed it’s A6 Avant, while BMW showed its new Series 3 model.
Also, among the most important new models were Volkswagen Passat, Chevrolet Matiz, Fiat Croma, Peugeot 107, Citröen C1 and C6, Toyota Aygo and Alfa Romeo 159.
A world first was also Ford Focus with four doors and Focus ST, Kia Rio with five doors and Honda FR-V.

The Russian car maker Lada, exhibiting next to Dacia, showed its newest model, first on display last year: Kalina is a small sized car that will also be on offer on the West European market starting this year.

The similarities in the level of equipment and engine power between the Russian Kalina and the Romanian Logan are striking; with the only noticeable differences in the design and the quality of the components. The Russian Kalina has a rather rougher look when compared to Logan, but it is priced in the same range: 8,000 euros.